As is well known in the art, fill fences are used in underground mining to hold backfill in a mined-out stope, or other open region. Construction of the fill fence, previously a labour-intensive task, is now less so due to recently-developed fill fences, for example, as described in Canadian patent application no. 2,892,348.
However, there are a number of unresolved problems in the prior art. First, installing the fill fence typically requires workers to be present at the locations at the side walls and the back where the fill fence is to be installed, to secure the fill fence to the side walls and the back. Because these locations are immediately adjacent to a relatively large mined-out region, they are usually considered unsafe, and the workers are at risk when they are working in these locations. Second, the problem of securing the fill fence to the back and the side walls has typically been addressed using labour-intensive methods.